AASLD: Tattoos Are Risk for HCV
“BOSTON, Nov. 6 2007– Tattoos are strongly associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, even among people without traditional risk factors such as injection drug use and blood transfusions, according to a study presented here.
Among 1,887 patients, HCV-positive patients were nearly three times more likely to have a history of tattoos than HCV-negative controls (34.1% versus 11.9%)”
The evidence is becoming a mountain of persuasive facts. Especially so now that studies like this one are being presented to “the liver meeting.” If HCV were a liver disease alone this would be the appropriate venue. However, this is a systemic virus and prevention is critical.
I need to pause and take a deep breath.
Why did someone like me know this so many years ago and why has it taken “science” so long to catch up to common sense? Why has the CDC not come up with it’s own program of education? My materials are over 10 years old, the CDC has not helped to control or prevent HCV in the intervening years. And, the band plays on, as it were. Instead of warning about the potential risk, information was couched. They waited for evidence.
Nothing substantial is happening to prevent HCV and the cost is off the charts in terms of the lives of people? Dr. Mast called me irresponsible in Appalachia for saying tattooes were a problem and it was going to get worse. Science that didn’t fit the CDC’s paradigm was dismissed (Haley and Fisher) Disease control and prevention?
It doesn’t stop there.
The American Public Health Association has been begged, pleaded, cajoled and repeatedly asked to focus on Hepatitis C during National Public Health Week (HCOP has been a partner for a number of years) I presented the problem to APHA in 2000, to the NIH in 2002, to CDC in 1998, and every year since we have submitted reports and proposals urging funding and programs.
An invitation to be on the CDC’s committee never came. A grant from the CDC requires that the message be consistent with theirs….
I’m still amazed that after ten years of being a thorn, we have inspired so few real studies. I am amazed that dissent and debate is discouraged when so much is at stake.
Remember- the tattoo appliers had a prevalence of over 60% when testing was done as a condition of licensing! Remember that the process is, in itself, not done in a sterile field by persons trained to understand sterility. Remember that even when it is done in a hospital setting, we have reports of transmission. This is a serious flaw in the information and the process itself, whether “professional” or not. It is also more common than ever. As we speak, the VA is notifying patients of a potential transmission risk from improperly used medical equipment.
We need a “so over:” a thorough analysis of the equipment, it’s manufacture, the training requirements and licensing and, most of all, enforcement and consumer protection (of which there is NONE) The industry is self governing. They, the manufacturers of equipment and supplies (approved for use years ago) need to participate in a revamping of standards of practice, sterilty, training and enforcement with penalties.
Not one task force or entity has done the amount of research into the specifics of the practice, how it is done and has connected the dots to the research already available (CDC study on HCV virus in the environment) that HCOP has done. But we need to.
Hepatitis C is a global threat.
The possibilities in a campaign to test and teach people about HCV would include:
1. Reduce the need for transplants by offering information to persons who test positive.
2. Increase supply of healthy organs and tissue by routine testing of people, beginning after high school and every 3-5 years thereafter.
3. Advocate and teach principles of prevention of liver disease through smoking cessation, alcohol abstenance and other lifestyle risks to the human liver, including air and water, OTC medications, supplements, and much more. Connect vulnerability of the human liver to the environment.
4. Make tattooing safer. There is no consumer protection in this practice and it puts young people at high risk of infection.
5. Reduce the need for pharma therapy. An early diagnosis can prevent the need and postpone liver disease, at least until a safer and less toxic
treatment can be found. This will save money, help those without health insurance and prolong healthy function.
6. Give parents information on high risk behaviours that expose young people to transmission.
7. Give women gender based information about Hepatitis C, fertility, mother to child transmission, treatment, hormonal complications.
8. Introduce the concept of liver health. Liver awareness is as important as heart health. Obesity alone can cause cirrhosis by age 12. Layers of factors influencing health can result in the need for transplant.
9. Lessen the disability rates and personal limitations of those who go undiagnosed.
10.Education, awareness and prevention must begin in elementary school as part of health education.
Hepatitis C Outreach Project is the first organization in the world dedicated to hepatitis C. We are not industry funded.
HCOP requires a place at the table, consideration when it comes to funding, input from those most at risk: children, women, minorities. We need to look at the consequences of needing evidence for the obvious but no way to fund unbiased evidence gathering. Organizations like this one need to appear all over the world.
The idea that this is a disease of IV drug users has to go into the annals of history. This is a virus, and it has no regard for the definitions we place upon or the excuses we make for risk. It is out of the box long ago. It applies to you, your family and everyone you know. Or, in time, it will.
What you can do:
Donate if you can, and most important of all: GET TESTED. Urge everyone you know to get tested. It is the beginning of choice, real choice, to protect yourself and others. We have information for groups. Help us make it available. Talk about it at home, school, in the workplace.
You cannot protect your health unless you know your status. You cannot protect others from transmission. The informercials talk about treatment. I will be repeating the mantra (get tested) because it saves lives to PREVENT transmission to others, because all choices begin with a diagnosis.
Join us: ONE DEGREE FROM HEPATITIS C on FACEBOOK. Numbers matter.
thanbey
AASLD: Tattoos Are Risk for HCV
“BOSTON, Nov. 6 2007– Tattoos are strongly associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, even among people without traditional risk factors such as injection drug use and blood transfusions, according to a study presented here.
Among 1,887 patients, HCV-positive patients were nearly three times more likely to have a history of tattoos than HCV-negative controls (34.1% versus 11.9%)”
The evidence is becoming a mountain of persuasive facts. Especially so now that studies like this one are being presented to “the liver meeting.” If HCV were a liver disease alone this would be the appropriate venue. However, this is a systemic virus and prevention is critical.
I need to pause and take a deep breath.
Why did someone like me know this so many years ago and why has it taken “science” so long to catch up to common sense? Why has the CDC not come up with it’s own program of education? My materials are over 10 years old, the CDC has not helped to control or prevent HCV in the intervening years. And, the band plays on, as it were. Instead of warning about the potential risk, information was couched. They waited for evidence.
Nothing substantial is happening to prevent HCV and the cost is off the charts in terms of the lives of people? Dr. Mast called me irresponsible in Appalachia for saying tattooes were a problem and it was going to get worse. Science that didn’t fit the CDC’s paradigm was dismissed (Haley and Fisher) Disease control and prevention?
It doesn’t stop there.
The American Public Health Association has been begged, pleaded, cajoled and repeatedly asked to focus on Hepatitis C during National Public Health Week (HCOP has been a partner for a number of years) I presented the problem to APHA in 2000, to the NIH in 2002, to CDC in 1998, and every year since we have submitted reports and proposals urging funding and programs.
An invitation to be on the CDC’s committee never came. A grant from the CDC requires that the message be consistent with theirs….
I’m still amazed that after ten years of being a thorn, we have inspired so few real studies. I am amazed that dissent and debate is discouraged when so much is at stake.
Remember- the tattoo appliers had a prevalence of over 60% when testing was done as a condition of licensing! Remember that the process is, in itself, not done in a sterile field by persons trained to understand sterility. Remember that even when it is done in a hospital setting, we have reports of transmission. This is a serious flaw in the information and the process itself, whether “professional” or not. It is also more common than ever. As we speak, the VA is notifying patients of a potential transmission risk from improperly used medical equipment.
We need a “so over:” a thorough analysis of the equipment, it’s manufacture, the training requirements and licensing and, most of all, enforcement and consumer protection (of which there is NONE) The industry is self governing. They, the manufacturers of equipment and supplies (approved for use years ago) need to participate in a revamping of standards of practice, sterilty, training and enforcement with penalties.
Not one task force or entity has done the amount of research into the specifics of the practice, how it is done and has connected the dots to the research already available (CDC study on HCV virus in the environment) that HCOP has done. But we need to.
Hepatitis C is a global threat.
The possibilities in a campaign to test and teach people about HCV would include:
1. Reduce the need for transplants by offering information to persons who test positive.
2. Increase supply of healthy organs and tissue by routine testing of people, beginning after high school and every 3-5 years thereafter.
3. Advocate and teach principles of prevention of liver disease through smoking cessation, alcohol abstenance and other lifestyle risks to the human liver, including air and water, OTC medications, supplements, and much more. Connect vulnerability of the human liver to the environment.
4. Make tattooing safer. There is no consumer protection in this practice and it puts young people at high risk of infection.
5. Reduce the need for pharma therapy. An early diagnosis can prevent the need and postpone liver disease, at least until a safer and less toxic
treatment can be found. This will save money, help those without health insurance and prolong healthy function.
6. Give parents information on high risk behaviours that expose young people to transmission.
7. Give women gender based information about Hepatitis C, fertility, mother to child transmission, treatment, hormonal complications.
8. Introduce the concept of liver health. Liver awareness is as important as heart health. Obesity alone can cause cirrhosis by age 12. Layers of factors influencing health can result in the need for transplant.
9. Lessen the disability rates and personal limitations of those who go undiagnosed.
10.Education, awareness and prevention must begin in elementary school as part of health education.
Hepatitis C Outreach Project is the first organization in the world dedicated to hepatitis C. We are not industry funded.
HCOP requires a place at the table, consideration when it comes to funding, input from those most at risk: children, women, minorities. We need to look at the consequences of needing evidence for the obvious but no way to fund unbiased evidence gathering. Organizations like this one need to appear all over the world.
The idea that this is a disease of IV drug users has to go into the annals of history. This is a virus, and it has no regard for the definitions we place upon or the excuses we make for risk. It is out of the box long ago. It applies to you, your family and everyone you know. Or, in time, it will.
What you can do:
Donate if you can, and most important of all: GET TESTED. Urge everyone you know to get tested. It is the beginning of choice, real choice, to protect yourself and others. We have information for groups. Help us make it available. Talk about it at home, school, in the workplace.
You cannot protect your health unless you know your status. You cannot protect others from transmission. The informercials talk about treatment. I will be repeating the mantra (get tested) because it saves lives to PREVENT transmission to others, because all choices begin with a diagnosis.
Join us: ONE DEGREE FROM HEPATITIS C on FACEBOOK. Numbers matter.
thanbey